DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


1 

Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

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< 

THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  K 


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By  reference  to  the  accompanying  tabulated  state- 
ment it  will  be  seen  that  30,016  families  have  been 
visited.  Of  these  10,353  were  found  destitute  of  the 
precious  Book;  8,721  families  and  3,210  individuals 
have  been  supplied.  Some  decline  to  receive  and  we 
do  not  force  it  upon  them.  There  have  been  distribu- 
ted in  this  work  20,130  volumes  of  the  Book  of  Life, 
costing  $5,337  58.  And  it  has  been  performed  by  17 
Colporteurs  who  have  worked  1,300  days,  and  traveled 
1 3»33^  miles  at  an  expense  of  $,3133  36. 

The  society  and  the  community  are  brought  under  t 
renewed  and  augmented  obligations  to  the  American 
Bible  Society,  which  has  ever  so  generously  and  cheer 


♦ 

fully  aided  us,  for  the  continued  manifestation  of  its  ♦ 

4> 


parental  solicitude,  in  repeated  liberal  grants  of  books, 
by  which  alone  this  work  has  been  prosecuted,  and 
without  which  it  could  not  have  been  performed.  Very 
many  persons  have  thus  received  the  Bible,  who  might 
otherwise  never  have  owned  a  copy  of  God's  word ;  | 
and  we,  as  well  as  they,  owe  a  lasting  debt  of  gratitude  1 
to  this  noble  benefactor.  J 

The  above  figures  exhibit,  though  not  very  perfectly, 
the  results  of  the  year's  operations  in  this  direction. 
Taking  them  in  connection  with  the  following  state- 
ments which  represent,  summarily  what  has  been  done 
at  the  Depository,  and  we  have  in  brief  the  suming 
up  of  the  year's  work  : 

Stock  in  the  House  last  year,  Vol.  12,959  at     $2,564  90 

"    Rec'dfr.  A.  B.  Society,   "    25,818"      5,885  48  ♦ 

"    Returned  fr.  Colp't's,     "        380  "  87  70     8,538  08 

  <> 

"    Sent  into  the  field...    "         25,418    5,808  50  t 

"  Sold  from  Depository  "  "  5,163  1,177  14  ♦ 
i:    Donated  fr.  Depository  "    "        385         75  97 

"    Annuities  of  life  me'b'rs  "    "       350         71  50     7,133  11  f 

I  1,404  97  1 

I  > 

t  ? 

*  4 


6 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


Money  Statement — 

Money  iu  Treasury  Inst  year   572  29 

"  from  Sales  &  Collections  house  1,102  14 

k-    "    Contributions   522  2!) 

"    "    Rents   491  50 

"    "    Sales  in  the  field   4,510  25   $7,204  47 


Remitted  to  A.  B.  S. .  .  .  2,702  75 

Expended  at  the  House  .  .  1,263  69 

in  the.Field.  .  2,664  18  $(5,630(52 


On  Hani—  $573  85 

AVe  were  indebted  last  year  to  A.  B,  S   3,618  14 

We  have  remitted  in  excess  of  purchases .  .   .  .  629  92 


Still  due  A.  B.  S   2,988  22 


The  contributions  have  not  been  as  numerous  or 
as  large  as  expected,  nor  nearly  so  much  so,  as  the  im- 
portance of  the  work  demands.  We  hope  for  better 
things  in  the  future,  and  that  the  time  is  not  far  distant 
when  all  will  fully  realize  that  their  possessions  are  not 
their  own,  but  God's,  and  will  give  back  to  him  a  greater 
portion  of  their  goods,  and  thus  hasten  the  glad  day 
when  all  shall  know  and  love  Jesus,  and  be  prepared 
to  live  with,  and  enjoy  him  for  ever.  Your  attention 
is  called  to  the  following  list  of  contributions : 


Anniversary  Collections,  Coliseum  Place,  Baptist  Church   $112  80 

To  constitute  Rev.  Mrs.  John  Mathews  a  Life  Member: 

Mr.  H.  S.  Smith   10  00 

Capt.  Kouns   5  00 

Mrs.  H.  H.  Broad   5  00 

Mr.  R.  L.  Moore   5  00 

Mrs.  J.  G.  Parham   5  00    30  00 

To  constitute  Mr.  J.  G.  Parham  a  Life  Member  : 

"Mrs.  Linas  Parker   5  00 

Rev.  J.  A.  Ivy   5  00 

Other  parties     20  00     30  00 


Contribution  from  St.  Charles  M.  E.  Church,  $8  50   8  50     68  50 

Collection  from  Shreveport   9  00 


Amount  Forward  $190  30 


I  t 

t  t 

J  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT.  7  < 

t  * 

?   | 

I                  Carried  Forward  $190  30 

4            <  1-11  - -i.:  r  u  ;  i                                                                                       4  ' 


► 


•f         Collection  from  Harrisonburg   4  2 


Beauregard  Circuit,  Mississippi   5  00  f 

I  "          "    Yazoo  County,  Mississippi   10  00  t 

^  •'          "    Lake  Charles,  Louisiana   1  65  t 

9  M.  E.  Church  Conference,  from  Rev.  J.  C.  Hartzel   33  70  * 

t  Memorial  Presbyterian  Church   10  00  ♦ 

f  Coliseum  Place,  Baptist  Church    15  00  ♦ 

<t  Lewisville  Baptist  Church,  per  Rev.  .!.  A.  Burgess    3  35     .  X 

9  Hebron  Baptist  Church,  per  Rev.  J.  A.  Burgess   2  40  a. 

4  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Dr.  Palmer's   7H  7-"»  | 

J  To  constitute  Rev.  J.  H.  Nail,  D.  D.,  a  Life  Member  ; 

+  By  sundry  parties  30  00    t 

^  Pryrania  Street  Presbyterian  Church,  $14  95   44  95  « 

^  Verrnillionville  Presbvterian  Church   4  25  r 

J  "         M.  E.  Church  South   6  00  T 

4  Kimbal  Chapel  M.  E.  Church  South   15  75 

*  Collected  in  Scott  Co.  Mississippi,  per  Rev.  J.  N.  Williams  ...  11  45  I 

*  "  "  Covington  Co.,  Mississippi,  per  Rev.  Jos.  Graves  7"<  f 
X  Contribution  from  Judge  A.  B.  George,  Minden   5  00 

*  "  "     N.  O.  Christian  Advocate   1  00  J 

4-  "           1     Miss  T.  B.,  Monroe.  L   24  ] 

9  «          *•     L.  D.  Boyd,  Delhi,  La    45  f 

J  •'    Dryades  M.  E.  Church  South,  (German)...  6  05 

<►  •'          "     Felicity  M.  E.  Church  South   44  70 

>  To  constitute  Rev.  R.  Burton  a  Life  Member :  <• 

t  Rev.  R.  Burton  $20  00   * 

I           "    J-  Ivy  |5  00      t 

9  Ladies  of  Price's  Chapel,  Mississippi  $5  20   30  20  4 

t  Contribution.  Montgomery,  La.,  per  Rev.  J.  A.  Burgess   4  50  9 

"            Clark  County,  Mississippi,  per  Rev.  H.  DuBose..  65  ^ 

t  "           East  Baton  Rouge.  La..  E.  M.  Tabor   4  55  J 

|  $532  89  \ 

During  the  year  the  society  has  lost  by  death  one 
of  its  oldest  members,  and  best  friends  ;  Hon.  Edward 

X  McGehee,  for  20  years  one  of  its  Vice-Presidents.    He  \ 

X  lived  a  noble  life,  and  experienced  a  happy  entrance  I 

X  upon  the  realities  of  the  world  beyond.    He  has  enter-  1 
ed  upon  joyous  associations  with  the  redeemed,  and 


I      with  his  Saviour.    Let  us  take  these  examples  to  our  ♦ 

t       hearts  and  work  while  the  day  lasts,  being  prepared  at 

9      all  times  to  render  up  our  accounts.  I 

9                                   1  ♦ 

£                            Respectfully  submitted,  9 

X                                 M.  M.  GREENWOOD,  J 

Acting  Corresponding  Secretary.  t 

♦ 


I  t 

I 

I         8  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


►  TREASURERS  REPORT  DEPOSITORY  ACCOUNT. 


Balance  on  hand  last  Report   ^357  14  ♦ 

|         Rent,  Stonewall  Lodge   37  50  J 

>.            "    Children  of  Temperance  use  of  Room     1  00  ± 

►  '    Mt.  Moriah  Lodge   400  00  < 

►  "    T.  H.  Jones   85  00  4> 

►  "    Wadsworth  Temple   18  00  J 

y         Sales  and  Collection  per  J.  A.  Ivy   803  98  ^ 

►  Collections  at  Anniversary  in  Coliseum  Baptist  Church,  including  J.  4- 

►  T.  Hardie,  $10  00 ;  H.Y.  Ogden,  $5  00  ;  E,  J.  Gay,  $5  00  ;  Mrs.  ♦ 

[                 E.  Reese,  3  00   112  80  ♦ 

k         Collection  in  St.  Charles  Ave.  M.  E.  Church.  South,  including  $60  00  J 

►  to  make  Mrs.  John  Mathews  and  J.  H.  Parham  Life  Mem-  i 

►  bers,  given  by  H.  S.  Smith  $10  00,  Capt.  Kouns  $5  00,  Mrs.  < 
Broad  $5  00  ;  R.  L.  Moore  $5  00 ;  J.  G.  Parham  $5  00 ;  Mrs.  J 

J  Linas  Parker  $5  00,  J.  A.  Ivy  $5  00,  and  others  $20  00   68  50  J 

J         Algiers  M.  E.  Church  South   2  65  * 

Louisiana  Annual  Conference  M,  E.  Church,  per  Rev.  Hartzell   33  70  J" 

Memorial  Presbyterian  Church    10  00  7 

►  Judge  A.  B.  George,  Minden,  La    5  00  ^> 

►  Coliseum  Baptist  Church,  per  John  Juden   15  00  \ 

►  S.  D.  Boyd    45 

£         Lewisville  Baptist  Church,  Winn  Parish   3  35  X 

►  Hebron  Baptist  Church,  Winn  Parish   2  40  I 

►  Dr.  Palmer's  Church.   76  75  | 

Prytania  Street  Presbyterian  Church   44  95 

I        Sundrv  Collections   42  10  t 

►  T.  J.  Upton   25  00  I 

►  J.  A.  Burgess,  Collection,  Montgomery.  La   4  50  j> 

Dryades  Street  Church   6  05  T 

I         Felicity  Street  Church   44  70 


Rev.  R.  Burton  Life  Member  of  him   20  00  f 

4-        Ladies  of  Price's  Chapel   5  20 


4 


f        J.  A.  Ivy   5  00  < 

I        Kimball  Chapel   9  55  I 

X         Vermillion  Presbyterian  Church   4  25  X 

V         Christian  Advocate  donation   1  00  4- 

I        Miss  L.  B.  of  Monroe   24  f 

I         Vermillion  M.  E.  Chruch  South   4  15  T 

►    t 

►  $2199  91  \ 

►  •  1893  51  + 

X  Balance  on  hand   $306  40  t 


•9 


<► 

i  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT.  9 

4  — :    


CREDITS. 


t  Remittance  $1001  00 

>  Rev,  Ivy's  Salary   510  00 

J  Incidentals   312  50 

T  Book-keeper  to  November  1st   70  00  §1893  51 

I  $306  10 

♦ 
4 


57< 


I  COLPORTAGE  ACCOUNT 

f         Balance  on  hand  $215  15  4> 

1        Sales  and  Collections  12  months   4889  41  f 



>  5104  56  I 

I  CREDITS.  t 

£        Remittance   £1701  75 

*  Rev.  Ivy's  Salary                                                                        300  00  t> 

Colporteur's  Salaries  and  expenses   2764  18 

J         Incidentals,  Freight,  Drayage,  etc   71  18  I 

4.   \ 

♦  §4837  11  * 

*  Balance  on  hand                                                      267  45  | 

t  5104  56  t 

♦  ♦ 

I  t 

i  i 

♦ 

t  t 


 ~r 

> 


<> 

TO  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL   REPORT.  < 


"Boil's  rrovideiice  towards  ttt  BiWe."  I 

t 
> 
> 

> 


^IDIDIFLE]; 


\        Delivered  by  B.  M.  Palmer,  D.  !>.,  at  the  celebration  of 

[  I 
£  the  Thirty-first  Anniversary  of  the  Southwestern 


>  Bible  Society,  New  Orleans,  Jan.  16,  1881. 

*      * 

f  I 

We  are  assembled  Christian  friends,  by  invitation 

extended  from  the  various  pulpits  throughout  the  city  t 

this  morning,  to  commemorate  the  Thirty-first  Anni- 


► 

|  versary  of  the  Southwestern  Bible  Society — a  local  J 
t  organization  with  a  restricted  territory,  over  which  it  f 
j      undertakes  to  circulate  the  sacred  Scriptures.    It  is,  ♦ 

♦ 

4 


|      however,  only  one  of  the  many  co-ordinate  associations 
|       scattered  throughout  Christendom   engaged   in  the 
|      same  benevolent  enterprise  ;  and  they  are  all  of  them 
more  or  less  closely  connected  with  the  American  Bible 
Society  in  this  country,  and  with  the  British  and  For-  I 
|      eign  Bible  Society  in  England  ;  whose  object  is  to  print  t 
the  sacred  Scriptures  in  all  the  languages  and  dialects  i 
of  the  earth,  and  to  scatter  these  "  leaves  of  the  tree  of  t 
life  which  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations"  where- 

♦  ever  sin  has  extended  its  ravages.  * 

We  are  confronted  then  just  here  with  a  moment- 
ous fact,  the  import  of  which  it  may  be  well  for  us  to 
t  consider.  Why  is  it  that  this  one  book,  lying  by  itself  1 
|  onthat-desk,  commands  such  universal  homage  ?  What  J 
i  is  it  that  justifies  the  pre-eminent  title  in  which  it  claims 
I  to  be  the  Book  ?  The  world  is  full  of  books,  and  the 
|       shelves  in  our  public  and  private  libraries  groan  be* 

♦  neath  their  weight.    The  eye  swims,  and  the  mind  stag- 


> 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  I  I 


i      gers,  in  simply  contemplating  the   ponderous  tomes  | 
I      which  are  gathered  in  these  repositories  of  learning.  J 
t      Yet  this  one  book  claims  supremacy  over  them  all  ; 
J      as  though  no  other  could  fall  into  the  same  deno-  ;j 
mination  with  itself  and  be  called  a  book,  when  it 
is  near.      Again,  with  our  hand  upon  the  several 
treatises  of  which  it  is  composed,  we  speak  of  the 
X       scriptures."     Why,  the  pen  is  in  every  man's  hand — 


♦ 

we  all  write,  and  the  world  is  full  of  writings,  But  these  J 


J      are  the  writings,  sitting  in  judgment  upon  all  other 
I       writings,  and  claiming  a  royal  jurisdiction  wherever  j 

>  books  and  writings  are  found  upon  earth.  ] 
J  How  shall  this  proud  supremacy  of  the  Bible  be  f 
+       vindicated  ?    The  answer  is  at  hand  ;  it  has  but  one  au- 

>  thor,  and  that  author  is  God.  Hewho  built  the  Universe 
and  created  all  things  that  exist,  has  revealed  His  per- 
fections and  his  will  in  the  pages  of  this  book.   The  «> 

4      book  is  therefore  one,  and  stands  alone  in  the  same  t 
%      awful  supremacy  with  Him  who  is  its  author.    It  is  \ 
\       true  that  human  agency  was  employed,  through  a  \ 
j      period  of  fifteen  hundred  years,  in  composing  the  \ 
I       separate  portions  of  the  collective  volume.    Divine  t 
f      truth  was  cast  in  the  mould  of  human  thought,  and  was  f 
transmitted  through  the  forms  of  human  speech.  So 
distinct    indeed  are   the    characteristics  of  each  in- 
dividual   penman,  and  so   marked  is  the  impress  of 
each  particular  epoch,  that  a  just  historic  criticism  is  \ 
furnished  with  the  evidence  upon  which  to  establish  \ 
the  authenticity  and  genuineness  of  every  part  of  the  \ 
sacred  canon.   But  in  all  these  contributions',  made  | 
piece  by  piece  through  the  lapse  of  centuries,  there  is  a  | 
unity  of  thought  and  design  which  marks  the  presi- 
dency of  a  single  mind  throughout.    That  mind  was 
|      the  mind  of  God — embodying  His  truth  under  human 
|       conceptions  which  shall  rightly  embrace  it,  and  under 

i  x 

f 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


modes  of  utterence  which  shall  as  safely  express  it. 

Holy  men  of  God  spake" — here  is  the  human 
element  in  the  Scriptures  ;  but  they  "  spake  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  there  is  the 
Divine  element  which  gives  the  Divine  authorship  of 
the  entire  record. 

May  I  venture  to  spread  before  you  a  wonderful 
parallelism  which  occurs  to  me  at  this  moment? 
"  There  is  one  God,  and  there  is  none  other  but  He," 
"  infinite,  eternal  and  unchangeable  in  His  being,  wis- 
dom, power,  holiness,  justice,  goodness  and  truth" — 
and  these  attributes  of  necessity  exclude  the  possibi- 
lity of  any  other  to  whom  they  can  be  ascribed.  There 
can  be  but  one  Infinite  and  Supreme  ;  and  the  moment 
we  grant  these  perfections  to  Him,  every  competitor 
or  rival  is  shut  out  from  our  thought.  Again,  as  there 
is  one  God,  so  there  is  one  law — a  law  consisting  not  of 
arbitrary  enactments,  but  springing  from  the  nature  of 
Him  whose  character  and  perfections  it  accurately 
transcribes.  It  is  the  universal  law  of  the  one  Supreme 
Jehovah,  spreading  its  authority  over  all  orders  of 
created  intelligence  in  all  worlds,  only  modified  in  its 
details  to  suit  the  varying  conditions  in  which  these 
are  found  in  heaven,  earth  or  hell.  Again,  as  there  is 
one  God  and  one  law,  so  there  is  but  one  Mediator 
who  undertakes  to  solve  the  mighty  problem  of  sin — 
one  Sacrifice,  by  which  to  make  atonement  for  trans- 
gression— one  Priest,  to  offer  that  sacrifice  upon  the 
altar — and  one  Advocate,  to  plead  in  the  chancery  of 
heaven  the  high  argument  of  His  own  sufferings  and 
death.  A  single  link  is  needed  to  complete  the  chain  ; 
one  God,  one  Law,  one  Redeemer,  one  sacrifice  and 
one  Book,  in  which  to  make  the  stupendous  revelation 
of  it  all  to  us.  There  it  lies  before  us,  the  Book  of 
books  ;  springing  immediately  from  the  mind  of  God, 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


13 


revealing  to  us  the  thoughts  of  God,  unfolding  to  us 
the  plans  of  God,  making  known  to  us  the  purpose  of 
God  in  the  creation  of  the  universe,  and  disclosing  to 
us  the  grand  secrets  of  the  eternal  world.  It  de- 
serves the  applause  of  royalty  with  which  it  is  crown- 
ed, invested  with  the  supremacy  which  is  the  preroga- 
tive of  its  Divine  author. 

In  view  ot  all  this  there  arises  a  question  which  I 
propose  for  solution.  If  the  Bible  be  the  Book  of  God, 
claiming  jurisdiction  overall  other  writings,  is  it  not  to 
be  expected  that  God's  providence  shall  be  conspicu- 
ously concerned  about  its  history  ?  I  desire,  to-night, 
to  point  out  some  of  the  forms  in  which  this  providen- 
tial intervention  and  care  may  be  distinctly  traced. 

1 .  First  then,  I  direct  attention  to  some  facts  con- 
nected with  the  two  languages  in  which  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments  were  originally  written.  It  is  obvious 
that,  in  a  Revelation  which  is  intended  to  unfold  a  plan 
of  salvation  to  guilty  men,  terms  must  be  employed 
which  shall  denote  general  conceptions,  such  as  those 
of  holiness,  sin,  redemption,  repentence,  forgiveness, 
regeneration  and  the  like.  But  these  purely  abstract 
terms  are  devoid  of  significance,  until  a  meaning  is  put 
into  them  by  taking  up  the  language  of  sense — percep- 
tion and  glorifying  it  with  a  spiritual  import.  As  ideas 
are  originated  in  the  mind  through  impressions  made 
upon  the  senses,  the  whole  terminology  of  Grace  must 
be  created  by  the  transfiguration  of  images  which  are 
drawn  from  the  outward  world.  Hence  the  symbol- 
ical character  of  Divine  Revelation  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. The  doctrine  of  atonement  was  taught  by  the 
institution  of  animal  sacrifice,  at  the  very  beginning  and 
instantly  upon  the  first  transgression  ;  and  this  germ- 
inal symbol  expands  afterwards  into  the  whole  com- 
plex ritual  of  the  ancient  Hebrews.   Conviction  of  sin 


14 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


and  the  consequent  obligation  to  punishment,  were 
deepened  in  the  mind  by  innumerable  ceremonial  res- 
trictions; which  were  constantly  violated  in  the  inter- 
course of  life,  and  which  required  a  constant  purgation 
of  the  transgressor.  The  expiation  of  sin  demanded 
by  infinite  and  inflexible  justice,  was  adumbrated  in 
the  various  sacrifices  offered  upon  the  Jewish  altar ; 
and  reconciliation  and  communion  with  the  Most  High 
were  illustrated  in  the  sacrificial  feasts,  which  formed  so 
important  a  feature  in  Hebrew  worship.  The  holiness 
of  God  and  the  corresponding  purity  of  the  worshiper 
were  represented  under  the  ablutions  and  purifications, 
which  transfigured  the  idea  of  physical  into  that  of  moral 
cleanness,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  whole  doc- 
trine of  sanctification.  It  is  needless  to  adduce  further 
illustrations  of  the  pictorial  and  typical  character  of 
that  ancient  economy — one  of  its  important  ends  being 
the  creation  of  a  language,  through  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  shall  reveal  to  us  the  mysteries  of  God's  mercy 
and  grace  Those  who  desire  to  pursue  this  line  of 
thought,  will  do  well  to  consult  a  popular  work  in 
which  it  is  elaborated  with  admirable  skill.* 

Now  the  Hebrew  tongue  is  peculiarly  fitted  for  this 
symbolical  presentation  of  Divine  truth.  As  one  at 
least  of  the  primitive  languages,  every  word  in  it 
embodies  a  material  image  and  offers  a  picture  to  the 
eye.  The  scholar  is  delighted  to  find  in  its  vocabulary 
what  appears  to  him  a  splendid  gallery  of  art,  upon 
whose  walls  are  hung  the  most  beautiful  paintings  the 
eye  ever  rested  upon.  Into  the  tapestry  of  the  language 
are  woven  forms  of  exquisite  grace,  as  well  as 
landscapes  of  surpassing  loveliness.  Perhaps  it  is  true 
of  every  language  in  its  primordial  construction,  that 

^Walker's  "Philosophy  of  the  plan  of  salvation." 


THTRTY-FIRST 


ANNUAL 


REPORT. 


9S 


every  word  shall  be  thus  pictorial ;  but  in  the  develop- 
ment which  culture  always  ensures,  this  emblematic 
character  is  gradually  lost ;  as  words  pass  from  their 
primary  use  into  a  secondary  and  tropical  signification. 
What  is  gained  in  the  accession  of  general  and  abstract 
terms  necessary  to  philosophic  precision,  is  lost  in 
poetic  beauty  and  force.  But  the  Hebrew  language 
was  employed  as  the  vehicle  of  Divine  Revelation, 
whilst  it  was  in  its  forming  stage,  and  the  painting  of 
the  material  image  was  hardly  as  yet  dry  upon  the  sur- 
face of  each  word.  It  was  in  itself  a  collection  of  sym- 
bols, exactly  suited  to  the  symbolic  revelation  of  which 
it  was  made  the  medium  of  transmission.  It  was 
equally  adapted  to  those  grand  visions  afforded  to  the 
ancient  Prophets,  through  whose  inspired  enigmas 
the  shadows  of  events  yet  to  come  were  cast  upon  the 
wall.  Nor  was  it  less  fitted  to  be  the  language  of 
devotion  and  of  praise,  in  those  tender  lyrics  set  to  the 
harp  of  David  ;  and  which  will  be  set  to  the  harp  of 
every  saint  in  every  age,  until  they  swell  into  the  grand 
chorus  of  angels  and  the  redeemed  around  the  throne 
of  God  and  the  Lamb  in  Heaven. 

I  turn  now  from  the  Hebrew  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  Greek  of  the  New.  When  "  the  fulness 
of  time  wras  come,"  and  the  Great  Prophet  appeared 
upon  earth  of  whom  Moses  was  the  type,  another 
language  was  required  for  the  larger  Revelation  to  be 
made — a  language  more  developed  than  the  Hebrew, 
more  comprehensive  and  flexible,  and  more  subtle  in 
expressing  the  nicest  shades  of  thought,  So  God, 
in  His  providence,  far  back  in  the  centuries,  was  train- 
ing the  Greeks  to  frame  a  language  for  the  New  Tes- 
tament, as  before  the  Hebrews  had  prepared  a  dialect 
for  the  Old.  They  were  a  people  remarkable  for 
subtlety  of  intellect,  carrying  the  culture  of  art  and  the 


i6 


THIRTY -FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


study  of  philosophy  to  such  a  pitch  as  to  win  for  their 
country  the  proud  distinction  of  being  "  the  school- 
mistress of  the  world."  But  the  grandest  monument 
of  their  genius  is  the  language  which  they  forged  in 
those  high  speculations  of  philosophy  which  yet  rule  so 
largely  the  empire  of  modern  thought.  In  the  con- 
struction of  this  language  they  have  rendered  their 
largest  service  to  mankind  ;  for  into  it  God  has  poured 
all  the  treasures  of  that  truth  in  which  the  symbols  of 
the  Old  Economy  were  lost,  as  the  shadow  is  swallowed 
up  in  the  substance,  It  was  exactly  the  language  in 
which  to  embalm  the  materials  of  a  scientific  theology. 
In  the  fulness  of  its  vocabulary,  in  the  variety  of  its 
connective  particles,  in  the  richness  of  its  grammatical 
forms,  and  above  all  in  its  power  of  combining  words 
as  thought  wrestles  in  its  agony  to  find  emphasis  of 
expression,  truth  is  stated  with  such  nicety  of  discrimi- 
nation and  with  such  delicacy  of  shade  as  to  signalize 
the  Greek  for  the  conveyence  of  Christian  dogma. 
The  Biblical  student,  after  worrying  through  elaborate 
commentaries,  often  recurs  to  the  original  text,  sur- 
prised to  find  in  itself  the  best  exposition  of  its  own 
meaning.  And  who  does  not  know  that,  in  the  great 
controversies  through  which  the  creed  of  the  Church 
was  articulately  framed  in  the  early  centuries,  it  was 
the  precision  of  the  Greek  tongue  which  enabled  the 
Christian  Fathers  to  detect  error,  sometimes  impaling 
it  upon  the  shaft  of  a  single  letter  in  a  single  word. 

But  if  the  Divine  care  is  disclosed  in  thus  preparing 
the  languages  for  the  reception  of  His  truth,  there  is 
deeper  significance  in  the  fact  that  both  were  broken 
from  the  chain  of  living  tongues  as  soon  as  they  had 
fulfilled  this  purpose.  Both  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Greek,  after  gathering  into  them  the  Divine  tes- 
timonies, were  sealed  up  as  the  urns  in  which  those 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


J7 


treasures  should  be  preserved  from  change  through 
all  time.  The  Hebrew  was  arrested  in  its  growth,  so 
that  it  never  passed  through  the  stages  of  develope- 
mcnt  necessary  to  bring  it  to  perfection.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  impression  of  this  incompleteness  made  upon 
me  when  I  first  entered  upon  the  study  of  that  vener- 
able tongue — nor  my  wonder  that  our  educators  had 
not  embraced  it  in  the  curriculum  by  which  our  youth  are 
trained,  as  illustrating  how  languages  are  formed  and 
grow  in  exact  accordance  with  all  the  laws  of  thought 
This  arrest  was  made  under  a  series  of  providential 
dispensations  carefully  interpreted  to  us  by  the  pro- 
phet standing  always  close  to  the  historian,  and  which 
are  so  wonderful  in  character  that  they  are  read  by  us 
with  tingling  ears  after  the  lapse  of  more  than  twenty 
centuries.  Certain  it  is,  that  upon  the  completion  of 
the  Old  Testament  Canon,  the  Hebrew  passed  into  a 
sacred  dialect,  no  longer  used  in  ordinary  intercourse, 
free  from  the  fluctuations  to  which  every  living  tongue 
is  exposed,  and  consecrated  to  the  one  high  purpose 
of  preserving  in  its  ark  the  solemn  symbols  of  a  pro- 
phetic and  typical  economy. 

The  same  great  change  passed  upon  the  Greek 
tongue,  though  less  abruptly  than  upon  the  more  an- 
cient Hebrew.  But  when  it  had  fulfilled  its  mission, 
first  in  receiving  into  its  verbal  forms  the  mighty  mys- 
teries of  redeeming  Grace,  and  then  in  defining  amidst 
fierce  controversies  the  creed  of  the  church,  it  too  be- 
came a  fixed,  hard  crystal,  protecting  from  abrasion 
the  precious  treasure  of  Divine  Revelation  which  it 
enshrined. 

The  insignificance  of  this  fact  needs  but  a  word 
of  comment.  All  living  languages  are  in  a  perpetual 
flux.  Words  lose  their  original  meaning,  becoming 
often  ambiguous,  sometimes  obsolete,  and  in  a  few  in- 


IS 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT, 


stances  expressing  the  exact  opposite  of  its  first  im- 
port. Why,  at  the  end  of  three  centuries  we  are  un- 
able to  read  Chaucer  and  Spencer  without  the  aid  of  a 
glossary.  The  modern  reader  is  perplexed  in  decipher- 
ing the  early  versions  of  Wiclif  and  Tyndale.  Since 
the  period  of  the  Reformation  different  versions  of  the 
English  Bible  have  been  made  ;  and  the  scholarship 
of  the  English  speaking  world  is  at  this  moment  en- 
gaged in  another  and  more  careful  revision,  with  a 
view  to  the  expurgation  of  archaisms  and  conforming 
our  existing  version  more  nearly  to  the  present  state 
of  the  English  language.  Let  us  suppose  then  that 
the  Hebrew  tongue  had  been  subjected  to  this  law  of 
change  through  a  stretch  of  twenty-three  hundred 
years  since  the  days  of  Malachi — and  the  Greek, 
through  nearly  eighteen  hundred  years  since  the  days 
of  John — where  would  be  the  standard  text  to  which  we 
could  recur  to  ascertain  the  Revelation  which  God  had 
oqven  to  man  ? 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  same  matter.  We 
have  reached  the  period  in  the  history  of  the  church 
when  her  great  duty  is  to  unfetter  these  Divine  Oracles, 
In  this  Missionary  age,  when  the  church  has  harnessed 
herself  to  the  imperial  task  of  subjugating  the  world 
to  Christ,  these  Scriptures  must  be  translated  into  all 
the  tongues  and  dialects  of  tongues  which  are  spoken 
over  the  globe.  In  China  and  Japan,  in  Egypt  and 
India,  all  over  the  steppes  of  Asia  and  through  the 
jungles  of  Africa,  men  must  read  "  in  their  own  tongue 
wherein  they  were  born"  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 
But  what  shall  be  the  standard  by  which  all  these  ver- 
sions shall  be  verified,  and  what  the  text  from  which 
they  shall  severally  be  drawn  ? 

Obviously  there  can  be  no  final  and  uniform 
arbiter,  except  in  a  Revelation  which  has  been  locked 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


19 


up  in  a  language  itself  congealed  into  a  fixed  form  and 
put  forever  beyond  the  reach  of  change.  How  mar- 
vellous the  working  of  that  Providence,  by  which  the 
unchangeable  God  has  stamped  the  likeness  of  His 
own  unchangeableness  upon  the  Record  of  His  own 
purposes  and  thoughts  !  Men  may  deny  or  refuse,  or 
misconstrue  His  testimony  ;  but  they  cannot  add  to  it, 
nor  take  from  it.  God  has  locked  up  the  Record  in  the 
archives  of  His  own  providing,  and  has  taken  the  key 
into  His  own  possession. 

2.  I  call  attention  next  to  the  providential  multi- 
plication and  preservation  of  ancient  manuscripts,  by 
which  we  are  able  to-day  to  establish  the  verity  of  the 
Sacred  Text.  The  topic  is  large,  and  can  only  be  hand- 
led here  under  its  most  general  aspect.  Of  course  the 
question  presents  itself  upon  taking  up  a  copy  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures,  have  we  here  the  very 
words  which  the  Holy  Ghost  inspired  Prophets  and 
Apostles  to  write  ?  It  so  happens  that  early  copies  of 
the  Sacred  Record  were  made  with  evident  care,  and 
were  collected  at  important  ecciesiastical  centres — such 
as  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  Constantinople  and  Rome  in 
Europe,  in  Babylonia  and  Syria  in  Asia.  With  untiring 
industry  these  have  been  collated  by  the  ripest  scholars 
of  every  age,  and  through  this  comparison  and  combi- 
nation of  testimony  the  verity  of  the  original  text  can 
be  satisfactorily  ascertained.  It  will  serve  to  illustrate 
this  point  to  refer  to  a  single  fact.  When  Kennicott 
and  DeRossi  first  announced  their  detection  of  many 
thousand  various  readings  in  the  manuscripts  they  had 
compared,  the  Christian  world  rose  in  alarm  against 
critical  labors  which  threatened  to  unsettle  the  author- 
ity of  God's  word.  But  when  these  variations  came 
to  be  sifted,  they  were  found  almost  uniformly  of  the 
most  unimportant  character — such,  for  example,  as 


20 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


whether  we  should  spell  the  word  honour  in  English 
with  or  without  the  letter  u.  With  the  exception  of 
only  one  or  two  single  passages,  the  genuiness  of  the  re- 
ceived text  was  unchallenged  ;  and  not  a  single  doc- 
trine or  fact  was  displaced,  or  even  weakened,  by  this 
imposing  array  of  seeming  contradictions.  The  inter- 
grity  of  the  Sacred  Text  was  thus  unchangeably  estab- 
lished ;  and  these  manuscripts  remain  and  will  be  kept 
with  holy  vigilance,  as  permanent  vouchers  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  Scriptures  in  our  hands  to-day.  How  mar- 
vellous is  that  Providence  which  caused  so  many- 
copies  of  the  Divine  word  to  be  taken  at  so  many  points, 
and  at  a  period  when  fraud  and  interpolation,  or  simple 
errors  of  transcription,  would  certainly  be  detected ! 
And  how  remarkable,  that  so  many  of  these  witnessing 
manuscripts  should  have  escaped  the  ravages  of  time 
and  the  changes  to  which  all  things  mortal  are  exposed  ! 
How  wonderful  that  historic  criticism  finds  the  evidence 
for  establishing  the  genuineness  of  the  Scriptures  in- 
creasing with  every  new  discovery  !  All  this  becomes 
the  more  impressive  by  the*  contrast  between  the 
Sacred  Books,  and  those  of  secular  literature  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  ancient  days.  JNo 
such  cumulative  testimony  can  be  drawn  from 
concurrent  documents  to  establish  the  genuine- 
ness of  any  profane  history ;  showing  that  God,  hav- 
ing given  the  Revelation  of  His  will,  has  also  taken 
care  that  it  should  be  preserved  and  verified  to  all  the 
generations  that  shall  live  to  the  judgment  day. 

3.  I  pass  to  another  striking  verification  of  the 
Divine  Record,  which  has  come  to  light  in  recent  times  ; 

the  antiquarian  researches  into  the  remains  of  ancient 
profane  history  contemporaneous  ivith  the  events  record- 
ed in  the  Bible,  You  need  not  be  told  that  the  dog- 
matic authority  of  the  Scriptures  is  now  assailed  with 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


greater  persistency  and  boldness  than  in  any  former 
age.  The  old  line  of  assault  through  alleged  discrep- 
ancies found  in  the  historic  statements  of  the  Bible,  has 
been  abandoned  ;  as  minute  investigation  has,  one  by 
one,  cleared  these  up  and  shown  them  to  exist  .iu  ap- 
pearance only,  but  not  in  fact.  And  the  blatant  lec- 
turer, who  in  this  country  is  now  employed  in  giving 
a  rehash  of  the  blasphemies  of  Paine  and  the  puerilities 
of  the  elder  Tindal,  may  be  safely  ignored  as  being 
himself  simply  an  anachronism.  But  the  modern  school 
of  criticism  has  undertaken  the  more  audacious 
task  of  unsettling  the  authorship  of  the  more  ancient 
portions  of  the  Sacred  Record  and  the  dates  of  their 
composition,  inducing  a  general  skepticism  as  to  the 
historical  verity  of  the  entire  book. 

Well  then,  side  by  side  with  this  school  of  de- 
structive criticism  and  yet  wholly  independent  of  it,  a 
spirit  of  antiquarian  research  has  been  awakened  ; 
which  undertakes  a  thorough  exploration  of  those  an- 
cient Biblical  lands,  to  see  what  knowledge  can  be 
gleaned  from  the  historic  monuments  lying  buried 
under  the  ruins  of  those  ancient  cities  which  were  once 
the  seat  of  empire.  Archaeological  societies  have  been 
organized  in  America  and  in  Europe,  raising  large 
sums  of  money  to  be  employed  in  this  exhumation  of 
ancient  and  forgotten  history.  The  best  scholars  of 
the  world  have  been  sent  forth  under  their  auspices, 
equipped  with  all  the  appliances  necessary  to  this  wrork 
of  excavation.  It  would  be  an  old  story  to  many  in 
this  audience  to  tell  how  they  have  invaded  the  tombs 
of  Egypt,  scanned  the  walls  of  her  temples,  and  deci- 
phered the  hieroglyphics  of  her  obelisks — how  they  have 
scoured  die  plains  of  Moab  and  gathered  the  legend 
upon  her  wonderful  stone — how  they  have  dug  beneath 
the  site  of  ancient  Troy,  to  find  the  relics  of  Homeric 
story — how  they  have  turned  up  to  the  light  of  the  sun 


22 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT, 


the  old  foundations  of  Nineveh,  Persepolis  and  Baby- 
Ions,  tussling  with  the  cunei  form  inscriptions  of  the 
burnt  bricks  disinterred  from  the  debris  of  those  hoary 
centres  of  a.  past  civilization.  But  the  result  of  all 
this  subterranean  exploration,  as  published  under  the 
sanction  of  those  learned,  archaeologists,  is  what  par- 
ticularly interests  us  to-night.  These  inscriptions  are 
found  to  be  monumental  testimonies  of  the  prowess  of 
ancient  warriors  and  kings.  They  tell  of  such  and 
such  a  campaign,  in  a  given  year,  conducted  by  such 
and  such  a  monarch — of  the  invasion  and  subjugation 
of  this  and  that  foreign  territory — of  the  siege  and  sack 
of  cities  whose  names  are  particularly  recited — of  con- 
quered kings  led  in  chains  as  tributary  vassals  behind 
triumphal  chariots — and  all  this  accompanied  with 
magniloquent  praises  of  the  might  and  glory  of  the 
conqueror.  But  all  these  proud  narrations  are  found 
to  fall  into  the  Bible  record  as  in  a  natural  socket. 
The  story  is  simply  supplementarv  of  what  was  long- 
ago  written  upon  the  sacred  page  The  hiatus  design- 
edly left  open  here  and  there  by  the  inspired  historian, 
who  was  writing  only  the  facts  which  related  to  God's 
dealings  with  His  chosen  people,  is  more  or  less  per- 
fectly rilled  with  these  scraps  of  profane  history  gather- 
ed from  these  monumental  stones  and  bricks.  So  far 
as  they  have  been  yet  deciphered,  not  a  solitary  con- 
tradiction has  emerged  to  what  is  written  as  history  in 
the  Bible.  On  the  contrary,  the  correspondence  is  so 
exact  between  the  two  independent  records,  the  later 
facts  so  interlacing  with  the  earlier,  that  we  have  that 
precise  verification  of  Biblical  history  which  springs 
from  the  undesigned  coincidence  of  minute  particulars. 
This  complimentary  character  of  the  monumental  his- 
tory confirms  the  testimony  of  the  written  word  beyond 
the  chance  of  further  impeachment. 


f  * 

I  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  23  ♦ 

t  t 

I  It  should  be  stated  in  this  connexion  that  these  ^ 

4  researches  have  made  no  substantive  addition  to  the 
sum  of  our  knowledge  of  the  past.  They  have  in  some 
X  degree  rounded  out  the  knowledge  we  had  before,  by 
t  filling  up  the  gaps  which  existed  in  the  previous  record; 
I  but  they  have  added  no  chapters  to  history  which  are 
T  positively  fresh  and  new.  Intrinsically  valuable  as 
t  enlargingand  confirming  what  was  already  known,  so  far 
f  as  I  am  aware,  the  sum  total  of  history  remains  without  in- 
4  crease  of  bulk.  This  leaves  us  to  infer  not  only  that  we 
have  in  the  inspired  volume  the  key  to  all  past  history, 
X  but  that  God  has  treasured  in  His  book  the  cream  of 
X  all  the  facts  which  wTere  worth  preserving  and  trans- 
t  mitting.  And  it  is  well  suited  to  provoke  admiration, 
1  that  the  disclosure  of  all  this  confirmatory  testimony 
j  should  be  reserved  to  the  period  when  it  was  most 
t  wanted  to  meet  the  most  formidable  assault  ever  made. 
♦  upon  the  historical  verity  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
4  4-1  beg  leave  to  submit  to  your  consideration 

X  another  Providential  movement  in  favor  of  the  Bible, 
which  strikes  me  as  not  a  little  remarkable.  1  refer  to 
the  concerted  effort  which  is  now  being  made  to  convert 
the  Sabbath  School  into  a  regular  Biblical  Institute. 
The  Scriptures  are  exposed  in  our  day  to  every  kind 
of  assault,  and  not  the  least  formidable  is  that  which 
comes  from  a  certain  school  of  science.  Believing  that 


4      no  contradiction  can  exist  between  what  God  teaches 
in  nature  and  what  He  teaches  through  a  special  Re- 

X      velation,  I  restrict  the  censure  to  a  particular  class  ;  and  < 

X      would  think  it  equally  rash  and  unjust  to  impute  to  X 

X      science,  which  can  teach  only  truth,  theories  which  simply  J 

I      lead  us  back  to  the  antiquated  and  abandoned  errors  of  } 

X      the  past.  There  are  those  however,  by  no  means  deficient  j 

+      in  genius,  influence  or  zeal  who  upon  the  ground  of  t 
science  openly  impugn  the  authority  of  the  Bible.  They 

X  I 


^4 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


allege  that  an  honest  rendering  of  the  sacred  text  yields 
an  account  of  the  derivation  aud  government  of  the 
world  which  is  contrary  to  fact.  In  the  place  of  an  in- 
telligent Creator  whose  efficient  will  brings  into  beino- 
a  well  ordered  Universe,  they  postulate  a  primordial 
vapor — whether  itself  original  or  derived,  will  depend 
upon  the  thinker's  tendency  to  Atheism  on  the  one 
hand,  or  to  Pantheism  on  the  other.  In  the  womb  of 
this  first  matter  lay  hidden  the  germs  of  all  forms  that 
exist,  organic  or  inorganic — and  by  necessity  of  logic 
all  the  potencies  of  life,  of  thought  and  of  volition. 
Through  almost  interminable  ages,  and  under  the  op- 
eration of  necessary  mechanical  laws,  the  whole  cosmos 
was  self-produced,  and  is  held  in  the  iron  embrace  of  a 
rigid  physical  fatalism.  The  hugh  machinery  grinds  on 
under  the  inflexible  laws  through  which  it  was  first 
established.  All  freedom  and  responsibility  are  de- 
stroyed. Man  thinks  and  feels,  and  chooses  and  acts, 
under  the  same  physical  necessity  through  which  the 
plant  grows.  As  God  is  excluded  from  the  arrange- 
ment and  order  of  the  Universe,  so  is  He  excluded 
from  its  management  and  control.  The  wheels  and 
pistons  of  the  monster  machine  move  under  the  law  of 
its  own  mechanism,  and  there  is  no  supreme  intelli- 
gence to  open  and  to  shut  the  valves.  An  indwell- 
ing mechanical  force  drives  its  ponderous  wheels  upon 
the  iron  track  ;  until  by  some  explosive  catastrophe 
the  whole  becomes  a  stupendous  wreck,  and  all  returns 
to  chaos  aeain  to  await  a  new  mechanical  evolution. 

o  .... 

In  such  a  scheme  there  is  no  room  for  either  Provi- 
dence or  Prayer.  Nature  runs  in  a  fixed  groove  ;  and 
man  with  all  his  wants  and  woes  finds  himself  "  with- 
out God  and  without  hope  in  the  world," 

It  is  not  incumbent  upon  me  to  test  here  the  val- 
idity of  any  of  these  speculations  ;  which,  though  they 
are  advanced  only  by  the  extreme  wing  of  skeptical 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


25 


scientists,  are  conclusions  from  which  they  do  not 
shrink  in  their  most  pronounced  form.  The  object  is 
simply  to  state  the  issue  which,  in  the  name  of  what  is 
called  science,  is  joined  with  the  inspired  Book  of  God, 
and  beneath  which  its  dogmatic  authority  is  thought  by 
many  to  be  steadily  crumbling.  Let  the  issue  then  be 
accepted  by  us  precisely  at  the  point  it  is  made,  and 
in  these  terms — a  Divine  testimony  rightly  interpreted, 
as  against  all  the  assumptions  of  science  and  all  the 
speculations  of  Philosophy.  But  now  let  us  see  one 
of  the  ways  in  which  God  is  leading  us  up  to  this  issue. 
It  occurred  not  long  since  to  the  mind  of  an  earnest 
Christian  layman,  to  employ  the  Sabbath  school  as  the 
instrument  of  lifting  up  the  Bible  as  a  great  classic  to 
be  systematically  studied  in  all  its  parts  and  connexions. 
The  suggestion,  like  an  electric  spark,  flashed  at  once 
along  the  wires  of  sympathy  throughout  the  Christian 
world.  Almost  before  it  was  matured  in  the  mind  of 
its  author,  it  was  wrought  into  a  practical  and  compre- 
hensive scheme.  A  select  committee  of  representa- 
tives from  all  the  Evangelical  churches  marks  out  a 
curriculum  of  study  to  be  completed  in  seven  years,  in 
which  the  Sabbath  scholar  is  carried  consecutively 
through  all  portions  of  the  Book.  Now  the  lesson  is 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  now  it  is  in  the  New — now 
it  is  in  the  lives  of  the  Patriarchs,  and  now  it  is  in  the 
Gospel  life  of  our  Lord — now  it  is  in  the  history  of  the 
Hebrew  kings,  and  now  it  is  in  the  Apostolic  Acts — 
now  it  is  in  the  grand  utterances  of  the  ancient  Prophets, 
and  now  it  is  in  the  close  reasoning  of  the  doctrinal 
Epistles.  Almost  without  hesitation  the  system  has 
been  adopted  by  all  branches  of  the  Christian  church  ; 
and  to-day  the  ripest  scholarship  is  employed  in  pour- 
ing the  accumulated  stores  of  Biblical  learning  into 
the  lap  of  the  Sabbath  school,  which  had  before  been 
treasured  in  Theological  seminaries  as  a  species  of 


♦ 

4  ♦ 

4         2D  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  4 

i   1  jL.  j 

4  i> 
esoteric  and  professional  lore.    The  generations  of  the  * 

|       future  will  thus  be  trained  in  the  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  as,  in  itself,  a  complete  Organon  ;  a  book  of  his 


♦ 

tory  with  its  testimonial  facts — a  book  of  principles  * 
+       with  their  tremendous  moral  sweep — a  book  to  en 


< 

tighten  die  reason,  and  to  direct  the  conscience,  and  to  X 

♦ 


sanctify  the  affections — a  book,  the  test  of  character 
£  and  the  guide  of  conduct — a  book,  the  final  arbiter  of 
4       all  disputes,  and  the  key  to  open  the  door  of  everlasting  f 

>  blessedness  and  glory.    If,  too,  the  time  shall  come,  ♦ 
which  I  am  hopeful  enough  to  predict  is  not  far  distant,  < 

►  when  the  Sabbath  school  shall  enlarge  its  circle  to  em- 

I       brace  the  parents  as  well  as  the  children,  we  shall  have  + 

X       the  entire  church  in  training  as  systematic  students  of  X 

X       the  Bible.    There  will  then  be  no  such  thing  as  gradu-  X 

♦ 
4 


i       ating  from  the  Sabbath  school,  for  the  child  of  seven 

years  will  find  at  his  side  the  grand  parent  of  seventy  4 
years — all  gazing  intently  upon  the  glass  of  the  writ-  ♦ 
ten  word,  until  these  lower  forms  of  knowledge  are 
+       superseded  by  the  grander  revelations  which  shall 
t      burst  directly  from  the  face  of  the  Throne.  t 
I  What  then  is  the  conclusion  into  which  we  drift  from  4, 


J  this  antithesis  between  inhdel  propagandism  on  the  I 
♦  one  hand,  and  this  Bible  education  on  the  other  ?  Why  f 
only  that  the  controversies  of  the  age  are  narrowing 


^       — j            —  —  .  ~ — —  —  — — — -  ~               0  ^ 

down  to  the  issue  betw.een  a  Divine  testimony  and  all  ♦ 
human  speculations.    It  is  true  now  as  of  old,  that 
4         the  battle  is  not  ours  but  God's  ;"  and  he  says  to  us 
X       as  He  did  to  Ahab,  "  because  the  Syrians  have  said  the 

X       Lord  is  God  of  the  hills,  but  He  is  not  God  of  the  ± 

t      valleys,  therefore  will  I  deliver  all  this  great  multitude  \ 

into  their  hand — and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord."  J 

It  is  fit  that  the  Supreme  Book,  which  gives  the  mind  * 

of  the  Supreme  Jehovah,  should  have  power  behind  it  4 

to  enforce  its  testimonies  upon  the  consciences  and  * 

X       hearts  of  men.    It  is  "  not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  '  4 


4  4 


THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


27 


but  by  niy  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  There- 
fore it  is  the  church  has  planted  herself  upon  the  Divine 
word  ;  and  therefore  it  is  we  are  educating  our 
children  to  stand  squarely  upon  its  authority.  When 
Infidelity  and  skepticism  marshal  their  forces,  we  are 
content  to  let  the  Bible  speak  with  its  own  voice.  The 
glory  of  victory  shall  belong  only  to  Him  by  whom  it 
is  achieved.  Let  the  great  battle  then  with  Gog  and 
Magog  be  fought  upon  these  holy  plains,  and  the  host 
of  Israel  exclaim  44  the  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of 
Gideon !" 

5.  I  will  fatigue  your  patience  with  only  one  illus- 
tration further  of  my  general  theme.  It  is  found  in 
the  division  of  the  church  into  different  branches,  or  as  it 
is  sometime  invidiously  termed,  into  different  sects.  This 
divergence  has  been  thrown  as  a  reproach  into  the  face 
of  our  Protestant  Christianity,  nor  will  I  undertake  to 
deny  that  it  furnishes  proof  of  human  infirmity  Per- 
haps it  is  a  fault  that  we  cannot  see  eye  to  eye  upon 
all  the  details  of  the  Christian  scheme.  But  when  the 
vast  comprehension  of  the  system  is  considered,  as 
well  as  the  depths  of  mystery  in  which  its  fundamental 
truths  are  sunk — and  when  further  we  take  into  ac- 
count the  natural  tendency  of  the  human  mind  to  diver- 
gence in  the  field  of  speculation — there  is  at  least  a 
diminition  of  the  reproach.  Yet  if  it  be  an  evil,  it  has 
unquestionably  been  allowed  in  the  Providence  of  God  ; 
and  it  may  of  that  class  which  Divine  wisdom  sees  fit 
to  subordinate  to  a  superior  good.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  all  bodies  of  Christians  which  stand  upon  the  au- 
thority and  teachings  of  the  Bible,  agree  entirely  upon 
all  the  ground  facts  which  that  book  reveals,  however 
they  may  diverge  in  their  articulate  expositions  and 
deductions.  Upon  such  fundamental  truths  as  the 
unity  of  God,  and  the  adorable  mystery  of  a  tri-per- 


28 


THIRTY- FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT. 


sonal  distinction  in  that  unity — upon  the  reality  of  the 
Incarnation,  involving  the  two  natures  in  the  per- 
son of  Jesus  Christ — upon  the  fact  of  redemption  ac- 
complished through  His  death  upon  the  Cross — upon 
the  doctrine  of  justification  before  God  through  His 
perfect  righteousness  alone — upon  the  office  of  faith 
in  appropriating  this  righteousness  and  making  it  our 
own — upon  the  truth  that  salvation  is  grounded  purely 
in  Divine  Grace,  independent  of  human  merit — upon 
the  fact  of  the  sinner's  entire  estrangement  from  God, 
and  his  just  condemnation  under  a  perfect  and  holy 
law — upon  the  necessity  of  regeneration  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  who  quickens  us  from  spiritual  death  into  spirit- 
ual life — upon  personal  holiness  as  the  necessary 
voueher  of  a  regenerate  state — upon  the  offices  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  renewing,  enlightening,  comforting, 
sanctifying  and  glorifying  the  believer — upon  the  re- 
surrection of  the  dead,  and  the  final  judgment — upon 
the  eternal  blessedness  of  the  redeemed  in  Heaven, 
and  the  everlasting  punishment  of  the  wicked  in  Hell 
— upon  each  and  upon  all  these  supreme  truths  which 
are  the  ribs  of  the  Christian  system,  there  is  not  the 
breadth  of  a  hair  which  divides  the  Evangelical  churches 
of  this  country  or  of  England.  Why,  in  this  rapid 
enumeration  I  have  run  up  a  magnificent  creed  which 
none  upon  this  platform  to-night  would  hesitate  to 
subscribe  ;  and  yet  I  have  stated  only  in  part  the  doc- 
trinal consensus  of  the  catholic  church  ol  God  upon 
earth.  It  is  true,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  draw  up  a 
formidable  list  of  topics  upon  which  we  would  honestly 
divide.  Yet  this  would  happen  only  when  we  come  to 
specification  of  the  minor  details  of  the  system,  or  to 
questions  of  external  order  which  do  not  touch  the 
vitals  of  Christianity  at  all.  Upon  the  system  itself  as 
it  stands  before  us  in  its  essential  facts,  we  agree  as 
with  the  heart  and  the  voice  of  one  man. 


I  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  2g 


|  There  arises  then  from  this  diversity  in  unity  a  cap-  ^ 

ital  advantage,  that  these  different  branches  of  the 
church  become  concurrent  witnesses  for  the  truth 
t  which  they  hold  in  common.  There  is  no  compulsory  t 
)  uniformity  in  their  testimony.  There  is  no  collusion  * 
|  between  the  witnesses,  patching  up  a  system  to  be  im-  | 
I  posed  upon  the  credulity  of  men.  But  in  the  free  ex-  } 
\       ercise  of  private  judgment,  each  has  bent  over  the  t 

>  sacred  volume  to  find  out  its  meaning  for  himself.  That 
the  investigation  has  been  independent  and  free,  is 
proved  by  their  obstinate  difference  in  given  particu- 
lars;  and  their  unanimity  in  affirming  the  truths  which  \ 
lie  at  the  heart  of  the  system,  is  a  light  shining  upon  < 
the  Bible  such  as  could  only  be  produced  by  the  con-  \ 
vergence  of  separate  rays  to  a  common  focus.  \ 

|  Why  is  it  that  the  life  of  our  Lord  is  written  by  f 

the  four  Evangelists  ?    Could  not  one  historian  have 
|      given  the  substantive  facts,  without  the  apparent  repe- 

>  tition  of  them  by  the  other   three  ?    Why  should 

4  Matthew,  with  his  eye  fixed  upon  the  Jewish  people,  I 
\  cast  his  narrative  into  a  form  which  accumulates  the  I 
|       testimonies  to  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  ?    Why  should  \ 


|  Luke,  with  his  eye  fixed  upon  the  Gentile  nations,  1 

|  bring  out  in  minute  and  expressive  features  the  true  j 

t  human  nature  of  Christ — putting  him  thus  in  sympa-  < 

►  thetic  relations  to  the  human  race,  and  tinging  his  < 
Gospel  with  such  a  Pauline  color  of  thought  ?  And 

>  why  should  John,  the  holy  mystic  of  the  Apostolic  Col- 

l  lege,  go  back  of  all  this  into  the  pre-existence  of  Christ  | 


who  u  in  the  beginning  was  the  word  that  was  with  I 

t      God,  and  was  God" — reciting  those  wonderful  dis-  £ 

I      courses  which  breathe  the  music  of  infinite  love  from  | 

f      the  bosom  of  the  Father  ?    Why  this  four-sided  history  ♦ 

t      of  the  Redeemer  on  earth  ?    I  do  not  pretend  to  give  ^ 

an  exhaustive  answer  to  these  questions,  touching  the  t 

I      manifold  uses  of  just  such  a  history  as  this.    But  unde-  + 


t  4 

t  I 

>  30  THIRTY-FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  « 
I  I 

i  ~  :  : — :   I 

niably  there  is  an  advantage  to  us  in  being  able  to  go 

>  around  that  blessed  life  upon  all  the  sides  of  the  square,  ± 
I  as  light  and  shade  fall  upon  it  from  north,  south,  east  > 
\  and  west.    May  it  not  be  in  analogy  with  all  this,  that 


t 

the  church  of  God  has  been  allowed  to  front  all  the  J 
j  points  of  the  compass  in  the  variations  which  have  f 
t      been  indicated ;  in  order  that  the  solid  temple  of  truth 

>  within  may  be  recognized  as  one  and  alone  by  the  very 

I       number  of  faces  it  is  able  to  present  ?  > 

t  4 
I  am  warned  by  the  clock  that  I  must  close. 

Christian  friends,  I  suppose  you  have  felt,  in  those 

tender  moments  which  sometimes  come  to  us  in  the 

>  closet,  an  envy  of  those  who  enjoyed  the  privilege  of 

$  looking  upon  the  face  of  our  Lord  on  earth.  You  feel  4 
t  that  if  He  would  but  reveal  Himself  to  your  sight,  and  1 
T      if  you  could  but  once  clasp  his  human  form  in  your  \ 


▼      embrace,  you  would  be  able  to  say  with  Simeon  in  the  } 
t      temple  u  Lord,  now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace,  tor  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation."    And  it 
is  perhaps  with  a  sigh  breaking  into  a  sob  that  you 
bow  under  Paul's  solemn  prohibition,  "yet  now  hence- 
t      forth  know  we  Him  no  more  after  the  flesh."    Yet  here  $ 
\      is  the  secondary  incarnation  of  our  blessed  Lord  in  X 
\\      this  Book.    Here  are  the  tones  of  His  voice  ;  here  are  J 
j[      the  words  of  His  love ;  here  are  the  tears  upon  His  ♦ 
f      cheek  for  human  suffering  and  sin.    It  is  not  to  us  f 

4  o  .....  4> 

the  hard  letter  of  a  hard  record,  but  it  is  a  living  Christ  ♦ 
walking  up  and  down  with  us  in  a  garden  of  delights ; 
I      a  personal  friend,  the  pulse  of  whose  warm  love  we 
t      feel  against  our  beating  heart,  and  into  whose  confiding  \ 
\      ear  we  can  pour  every  pain  and  every  prayer.  What 
I      a  compensation  have  we  in  place  of  our  absent  Lord  ! 
As  for  myself,  I  am  content  not  to  look  upon  the  face 
of  my  Master  upon  earth.    This  joy,  I  humbly  hope, 
is  reserved  for  me  hereafter :  it  is  enough  now  if  I  can 

t 

4- 


f  THIRTY- FIRST  ANNUAL  REPORT.  21 


meet  Him  in  His  word,  and  feel  His  strength  and  pity 
\  in  the  hours  of  [weakness  and  sorrow,  of  temptation 
X      and  of  sin. 


But  duty  is  co-ordinate  with  privilege.    An  obli- 
gation rests  upon  those  to  whom  the  oracles  of  God  are 
committed.    Have  we  the  right  to  monopolize  the  pre- 
X      cious  gift  ?  ^It  is  God's  book  and  God's  salvation  given 
1      to  the  world.    Would  you  raise  partition  walls  quite 
I      up  to  the  body  of  the  sun,  that  his  blessed  beams 
f      should  slant  only  upon  your  dwelling?    Would  you 
t      fence  off  the  expansive   air,  that  it  should  fill  only 
your  lungs  and  not  those  of  your  neighbor  ?  God's 
love  is  like  the  sunlight  which  bathes  the  earth  with 
its  glory.    His  grace  free  as  the  air  which  breathes 
over  grass  and  flower,  over  land  and  sea,  in  the  great 
round  globe.    You  are  asked  to-night  to  aid  in  circu- 
ting  these  Scriptures  through  the  section  of  the  land  in 
which  we  live,  through  the  vast  outlying  territory  that 
is  beyond,  throughout  the  earth,  that  all  nations  may 
♦      be  able  to 'see  "  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
\      Christ."  I  am  ashamed  to  make  any  appeal  in  behalf  of 
what  is  so  supreme  as  the  Bible.  One  thing  is  certain, 
nothing  of  privilege  or  duty  is  higher  than  t1ins  to  which 
you  are  summoned  to-night.    Next  to  the  joy  arising 
from  our  personal  interest  in  Christ,  is  the  joy  of  unit- 
t      ing  with  Him  who  is  the  Word  in  spreading  God's 
thought  throughout  the  world. 


> 

> 
f 

> 
> 

•>   

>         Stenographically  Reported  by 

J  I.  B.  BEATTIE, 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  CHARTER 


■OF    TH  E«£ 


i 


Soitl-Wiitefi  Bible  Sodity. 


4 
) 
> 
) 

4 

<> 

♦  ARTICLE  III. 

<► 

Members  of  the  Society  shall  be  as  follows  : 

I  /.   Annua!  Members,  being  persons  who  shall  annu- 

\     ally  contribute  a  sum  not  less  than  three  dollars. 

[  2.   Life  Members,  being  persons  who  shall  have  do- 

naied  the  sum  of  thirty  dollars. 

u.  Life  (Directors,  being  persons  who  shall  have  do- 
nated the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

A.  honorary  Members,  being  Ministers  of  the  Gospel, 
whose  congregations  shall  make  an  annual  contribution  in 
aid  of  the  funds  of  the  Society. 

5.  Matrons,  being  persons  who  shall  have  donated 
Vie  sum,  of  one  thousand  dollars. 


p 

111 


CALL  NUMBER 

002 


Date  (for  periodical) 
Copy  No. 


